Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3) (39 page)

Synn had been able to fly the
Layal
in a storm like this. “Then, take us around to the west and down, Suzu,” Ryo roared. “If it is safe enough for the Shankara to bomb the people of Kiwidinok, it is safe enough for us to be in it.”

Suzu pinched her lips together and issued soft commands to her co-pilot.

Ryo set his hand on Yawara’s shoulder. “Battle stations. Ready all long guns and cannons.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ryo took three steps to the back wall. He released the one of the two latches. A door sprang up next to his feet. He crouched and dangled his feet in the compartment below. “Let’s remain alert. We target Shankara and stop the bombing.”

“Yes, sir!” Suzu shouted before muttering something he couldn’t hear.

Ryo let it go. Suzu and he didn’t agree on a lot of things, but she was a damn good pilot. She’d escaped Ino City months before, when he was still healing.

In a glass encased dome below the control room rested one of his cannons. A long barrel plasma gun with a one hundred eighty-degree radius. There were several others like it along the body of the
Basilah
, and one on top of the control dome. He sank into the seat, leaving the door open. He slipped his feet into the toe controls, and spun the cannon around, checking his range.

Suzu had shifted the
Basilah’s
course to the west and was in the process of bringing her through the storm. The bright daylight winked out and was replaced by the dank press of storm clouds.

He waited, eagerly searching the skies at his feet for a target. Anything.

The cloudbank dissolved into a deluge of rain so thick he could barely make anything out through his window panes. Fires lit the darkness to the south, too far south for them to be of much help. That’s where Neira’s forces were. Where was Shankara?

A glowing massive
lethara
reigned supreme in the rolling ocean off the coast.

“Do you see it?” Ryo shouted.

“I see it, sir,” Suzu shouted back. “Are we sure about this storm, sir?”

Ryo could feel the winds grab hold of the ship. “If the El’Asim can do it …” He let that thought drop, knowing Suzu’s thoughts on his brother’s abilities.

The
Basilah
sucked back into the storm, leaving only the belly exposed, and flew towards Shankara City.

He would finally have the opportunity to seek vengeance on his mother. He’d make her pay. And if that meant taking out her supporters in order to get back at her, then that’s exactly what he would do.

C
HIE RAN DOWN THE TURQUOISE-TILED
corridor and stopped at a door.

We were on one of the family floors. I’d been here once before, with Ino Yotaka, my teacher. How long ago had that been? It felt like years.

Months. Only months.

She turned to us. “It’s in here.”

Hitoshi held up a hand and moved her aside. His sword in hand, he opened the door. Shaking his head, he relaxed his stance and entered the room. “Where is everyone?”

I followed. The room was expansive and empty save for one pedestal. A gray box stood atop it.

Chie rushed to it. “She knew we were coming.”

“Likely.”

“How?” She pressed a series of spaces on the door.

Kenta pulled her away before she could open it.

She stumbled backward, her hands raised. “What are you doing?”

Kenta’s face showed no expression. He stood behind the door, tying a piece of his belt sash over his mouth.

I glanced at Hitoshi who took a step back, grabbing Chie’s hand. I held my arm over my face, shielding my mouth and nose with the crook of my elbow.

Standing behind the small door, Kenta opened it.

A cloud of white powder exploded outward and rained down on him.

He bent down to peer inside, then straightened and shook his head.

I stepped backward outside of the cloud. “What is that?”

“The same poison I used to kill Oki with.” Ino Nami stepped into the room, looking a lot older than the last time I’d seen her. Her hair hung in long chunks from the maze of knots she typically had on top of her head. Her kimono was smudged and blackened in spots. Her lipstick was smeared along her lips.

I turned, lowering my arm.

She walked toward me with a limping, clonking cadence. Her eyes narrowed and flared. “Why can I not enter your programming?”

My programming. I must be talking to the other programmer. “I was struck by lightning.”

“Your Mark is still there.”

I shrugged. “I can’t use it, which means you can’t use me.”

I recognized the light of the programmer in my mother’s eyes as he met my gaze. Did she even know she was being used? That they intended to kill her and all of us along with her?

The programmer pursed my mother’s lips. “But your Mark remains. All I have to do is reprogram them.”

I tipped my head to the side and advanced. “I don’t know anything about your ‘programming’.” I was sick and tired of playing this game. “Or your nanites.”

He widened my mother’s eyes as he retreated another step.

“But I can guess that if you were able to do that.” I stopped, my hands held wide. “You would have already done so.”

Chie glanced at Hitoshi, flicking her gaze to the door. If the nanites weren’t there, she had one more idea where they might be.

Hitoshi gestured to Kenta and then led the way out of the room.

Once in the hallway, Chie took the lead.

“Where are you going?” Hitoshi asked.

The hallway in both directions was empty. Chie headed toward the left. “Ino Nami might not have noticed me, but I watched her. She keeps all of her important items in one place.”

Hitoshi changed the grip on his sword. “Let’s be quick.”

Chie stopped in front of a blank wall. Nothing on this wall looked any different than the rest.

Unless you knew what you were looking for.

The swirls in the tile. That’s what she was looking for. She touched her fingers on the swirls in the order she’d memorized after watching Ino Nami open this wall innumerable times since they day Oki and Chie could walk.

The tile wall slid backwards then, making a grinding noise, slid to the right.

The room that opened up to them was dark. Chie called on her Mark. It slithered out from underneath her sleeve and snaked out a sliver of light.

There in the center of the room sat a large glass bowl filled with a silver liquid.

Hitoshi stopped, crouched. He tipped his head one way, then the next, listening. He flicked his hand to the bowl. “Be careful.”

She knew the booby traps. She stepped carefully, watching for the tiles that were just a shade off from the others. Kneeling down, she stared into the bowl, not knowing what to do with it.

Hitoshi knelt where he stood and captured her gaze. “We destroy it.”

After dropping her bombs on top of the square, the mountain became unstable. It was almost as if Rose had hit a delicate paper structure.

“Wa-sna-win,” she shouted. “Tell Haji to get out of there! The whole mountain’s coming down!”

Jake buzzed in front of her, cutting to the left. “He’ll need some ground cover if he’s going to make it to the extraction.”

He was right. “Bullet guns.” She dove, pointing her guns at the lines and lines of enemy soldiers hiding behind the rise Haji and his metal men were about to go over.

A boom sounded to her right, pushing her to the left.

“Bettie, find that cannon and take it out!”

“You got it, Captain!”

They just had to make it long enough for Haji’s men to get out of there. As the mountain crumpled, it took the Han’s men out with it.

Yes. The mountain was doing a better job destroying the Han’s force than their bullet guns could.

“Found the cannon,” Bettie called, “and it’s out of commission.”

“Good job.”

“Wasn’t me.” She sighed, buzzing over Rose. “The mountain folded right on top of it. The bird knew what she was talking about when she told us what to bomb, sir.”

The chaos down below was hard to make out. The mountain convulsed, folding and erupting in intervals. The Han’s men were in the thick of it, with no way of escape.

“Stop shooting. There’s no sense in killing ‘em twice.”

Haji’s team ran just ahead of the destruction, somehow, miraculously as if the hand of something far greater than them were assisting. They leapt onto the
Layal
right before the land disappeared beneath their feet.

The
Layal
shook as if the disappearance of the land had left an impact on the air as well.

The storm wall shook, shriveling becoming less of a wall and more a storm.

Rose narrowed her eyes as she buzzed low one more time just to make sure. The whole point of this mission was to not have to do this again later after these people had a chance to regroup, rearm, and try again.

The Han was decimated.

The programmer tipped my mother’s head to the side as he stared at me in wonder. “What are you?”

I didn’t know what to tell him. I didn’t know how long it would take for him to fix his weapon against us, how long it would take for him to regroup, to “hack” us, to get “into” Bob’s code.

Nix stepped into the room.

What was she doing there?